Trivial Matters

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a trilogy consisting of five books and a short story. It was written by the late Douglas Adams, and is one of my favorite books of all time.

I didn’t discover the books until I was into my late teens. A guy I worked for started quoting it and when I looked puzzled, he exclaimed that he couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it yet. So I picked up a copy and literally absorbed the entire work in about two days. I’ve tried to make it a habit to re-read it every year, but both of my copies have been in storage for 2008.

I was reminded of it today when we were asked to write down our favorite book in my first class. I wrote it down, not knowing that the professor would pick the same book. Now I’m determined to either buy a third copy to read again, or make it a priority once I get my stuff out of storage. We’ll see how the rest of my classes go and how much reading there is for next week.

Once I’ve gone over it again, I’ll post a more complete review. So much of the plots are jumbled up in my head (especially after watching the movie, which combined the first three books… and not very well either).

I’m onto the next book in the post-Nemesis TNG series, Greater Than The Sum, and I’m a little put off by the nakedness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude, and I have no problem with nakedness, just not in my Star Trek novels. And not when they don’t really add anything to the plot.

Does the main character (storyline-wise, not “bridge crew”) have to be naked when she warns the Federation about the Borg? Also, am I the only one who read into one of the earlier scenes that the same character was sleeping with a superior officer in order to get a better position on the ship. That’s not Trek. That’s some slash-fic I could download for free.

I’m also a bit confused about the timeline now. I though that they had editors whose job it was to keep all of this straight, but this guy is jumping all over the place in the events of the previous books. Picard and Crusher for married, there was yet another new security chief, and something about a Admiral becoming another Borg Queen!?!?

Part of me wants to just skip this one and finally get to the Destiny trilogy that prompted my review of the TNG books in the first place, but I think I’d be even more lost. I skipped to the end of Sum (which I do from time to time when book becomes boring) and I got even more confused.

I have three more days at Dotty’s starting tomorrow morning, so I’m sure I’ll be able to finish it in between the moochers and pregnant menthol smokers, but this is now like having to read a book for a class. If I don’t at least skim it, I’ll be lost when I get where I want to be.

Exile is finished. I got my other homework done this morning and managed to finish the book by noon. I’m still not sure where the “climax” of the book was. Either in the middle (when I thought it was dragging) or in the last chapters. I could see the number of remaining pages and thought: surely this is going to be a new series. But, it ended. There were no loose ends (as far as I could tell) and it just leads right into Speaker for the Dead (sort of).

Of course, I now know of all of the short stories that fill in gaps and reveal more about the minor characters. I’ll have to search those out at some point.

Three more papers to finish and then I can get back to the Trek books.

My willpower has not been strong enough to keep me from the book. Yes, my homework and the final papers are still getting done, but as I lay in bed I’m drawn to finish filling in the holes of the Ender Saga.

I’m just about halfway through it, and Ender is still on the colony ship heading to the first world. The synopsis on the dust jacket indicates that the action takes place after he leaves that world, so I have to imagine that the pace will pick up. It has been years since I read the first four books, but I do remember their pace was distinctly slower than that of the Shadow series.

Reading Exile also draws up personal feelings of regret. I don’t want to compare myself to Ender, but I do wonder what I would be like if I had subjected myself to the military command life (i.e. attended a military academy and become an officer) rather than enlist under the circumstances that I did. In our current war, my hands have been tied by the Army such that I can’t use my skills and abilities to help win. Would it be different if I had chosen the other path? More importantly, would it really matter?

This weekend is my drill weekend, and I’m hoping that a resolution will be reached soon to either unbind my hands (as it were) or allow me to bow out gracefully, content that I did all I could. Perhaps allowing myself to become fully imerced in my studies (without trying to balance a military career) would allow me to help my country in other ways.

In the end, all of my speculation is academic. Events will unfold in one way, and one way only, and no amount of steering on my part can guarantee any outcome.

I went to the bookstore to retrieve the Trek books that I was missing. Unfortunately, I was able to only find two of the three.

As I was walking toward the checkout, I decided to see what was in the new releases. Low and behold, a new Ender novel, “Ender in Exile.” This one deals with the time between “Ender’s Game” and “Children of the Dead.”

It is going to take all of my will power to not dismiss my homework for next week and devour this novel by Sunday. The four Trek books (plus the one I’m still missing) are just going to have to wait for a few weeks.